Some background first: I graduated from one of the top universities in the US as an Electrical Engineer a couple years ago and have been working at a hardware company in the southwest since. I am now looking at a job in the SF Bay Area, both because I'm not too happy with my current company career growth opportunities-wise, and because my fiancé, to whom I'm getting married this September, lives there (and we agreed that's where we want to live together rather than where I am right now). For visa reasons I need to be continuously employed, e.g. I can't quit first & search for a job later in any scenario.
I've been interviewing with companies since October and made it to last round interviews with some top choices but unfortunately did not receive any offers. Recently, however, I received an offer from a company that's pretty similar to my current workplace, although potentially even worse for career growth. The compensation, location etc. is good but the company in general seems to have received poor ratings on Glassdoor (worse than my current employer), with most concerns involving company culture.
Since I would like to be able to move to the Bay Area to join my fiancé asap & before the wedding if possible, and since the hiring season (at least from what I can tell anecdotally from the # of interviews I'm getting) seems to be winding down, I'm considering taking the offer just to be able to move there and consider the job some sort of a temporary stepping stone. Since it's not what I want to be doing next career-wise, I'm thinking I would get back on the job market in the Fall and look for a better job (something in a product area I'm interested in & with better growth opportunity).
My questions then are:
- If start this new job now & I go back on the job market later this year (e.g. in the Fall), is it a problem to have on my resume that I've been at my job for 6mo before looking for a new job? If they ask about it, do you think my explanation would be satisfying?
- If it is indeed a problem, how long do you think I would have to stay at this job before the amount of time I've been there stops being a problem during my next job search?
- In general, does this sound like a good plan / would you recommend some other strategy?